Show Me Some Science

This podcast was created in response to a request by teachers. The idea is to demonstrate things that are important but would be difficult to show in class. These podcast are short (about 1 minute in length) and are designed to be incorporated into a lesson. There is no explanation during on the video which leaves space for teachers to narrate an explanation or use the videos to launch a class discussion. Feel free to use these videos in your lecture slides.

In this episode, we look at different objects in free fall. When you drop an object from a high height, and it is in the air, there are no forces acting on it other than gravity. This is called free fall. Can objects fall faster than free fall? It turns out an outstretched slinky can, because of the force of the bottom pulling the top down!

In this episode we use near infrared (near-IR) light to look at and through different objects. Near-IR is a kind of light we can’t see that is just beyond the red end of the rainbow. Some things that are opaque to visible light are transparent to infrared, including plastic bags and your skin! However, the blood in your veins absorbs near-IR light and appears dark.